This is a really cute anime, but I can't help that some of it is lost on western audiences because of the content. The plot is easy, it is pretty much a make believe version of how a bunch of famous Japanese haiku's are written, with the narrator being this guy who collected 100 poems (noticably more love poems than anything else) linking the time periods and characters together.

THis means that something you have to remember that while the characters are real, and the poems are real, the plot is not. Likely for Japanese viewers who would have studied these poems sometime in school it would be obvious, but for those not really into haikus it can get passed you as the stories given fit the time period well.

Each episode is mostly contained in itself, with a few characters flowing from one story to another as a minor character. The animation is beautiful, one of the main reasons I started watching this show, it fits really well with the feudal era time period and the opening theme song is lovely to listen to. The ending isnt too my taste but is not obnoxious.

It does run like a slice of life anime, as there is no real plot besides how so and so wrote this poem, so if romanance isnt your thing then it may get a bit boring. Otherwise it is a great show and one of the best of 2012 Summer line up.

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